An Open Letter to the Austrian Media

'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.' ~ United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Overview
We request that the Austrian media take responsibility to report with accuracy and impartiality on events in Israel/Palestine and on those who seek a just and peaceful resolution of conflicts in the region. This issue arose most recently in the Austrian media’s treatment of the Holocaust witness Hedy Epstein who was to have spoken at an international event in Vienna.

Background on In Grandmothers' Words Event
Today, March 8th 2016 (International Women's Day), the Austrian Parliament was scheduled to hold an event called In Grandmothers' Words. This event would have joined eight female WWII witnesses from around the world in Vienna in an unprecedented opportunity for the public to hear their experiences regarding specific topics, such as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Uprising in Warsaw, and the Blitz in London.

Two women of Austrian descent were among those scheduled to speak, including a Holocaust witness originally from Vienna and a woman of Slovene heritage who had endured multiple labor camps. Unfortunately, the Viennese Holocaust witness had to withdraw due to health reasons.

The US/German citizen Hedy Epstein was scheduled to speak about her experiences working on the Nuremberg Trials.

After the invitations were issued, a media outlet in Israel ran an attack article with quotes such as ''Epstein, 'the Holocaust survivor,' instrumentalizes her role against Israel and is for haters of Jews like the organizers of the Gaza Flotilla apparently a political lotto jackpot'' and that the invitation for Epstein to speak legitimates 'a hate movement against Israel.'

Faced with heightened domestic public opposition and concerned about safety issues, Parliament cancelled the entire event.

Austrian Media's Reporting of the Cancellation
Of those Austrian media reporting the cancellation, there was unanimous condemnation of Ms. Epstein. In just two examples, the tabloid Heute headlined: 'Parliament Cancels Event with Israel Hater.' The newspaper Der Standard mainly quoted another publication's attacks on Ms. Epstein's credibility.

Interestingly, no Austrian media reported having contacted Ms. Epstein to ask if the allegations against her were true. No media mentioned that Ms. Epstein was scheduled to discuss only the Nuremberg Trials at the Parliament event.

And no media questioned whether Ms. Epstein really is an 'Israel hater.'
Democratic Principles
Undoubtedly, Ms. Epstein has a compelling background. Born in Germany to a Jewish family, she was part of the Kindertransport in 1939. Subsequently, most of her family members were killed in concentration camps. After working on the Doctors' Trial at Nuremberg, she moved to the US and has been involved in various forms of activism ever since, most recently, at the age of 90, being arrested in protests surrounding the police shooting of an unarmed African-American youth in Ferguson, Missouri.

And Ms. Epstein is an outspoken supporter of the rights of Palestinians. She has called on members of the US Congress to 'raise basic questions with Israeli officials about decades of inferior rights endured by Palestinians both inside Israel and the occupied territories.' She has made multiple attempts to visit the Gaza Strip, has been in the Israeli-occupied West Bank five times since 2003, and openly criticizes the policies and practices of the Israeli government and the Israeli military.

But does that make her an 'Israel hater'? In essence, does questioning the policies of a government equate to hating a country?

Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu does not think so. In a 2014 Haaretz article entitled 'My Plea to the People of Israel: Liberate Yourselves by Liberating Palestine,' Mr. Tutu said that the key to 'a world in which mutual dignity and respect reign' requires 'a mind-set shift that stops regarding legitimate criticism of a state's policies as an attack on Judaism.'

In 2013, Mr. Tutu noted: 'It is no more wrong to call out Israel in particular for its abuses than it was to call out the Apartheid regime in particular for its abuses… It is not with rancor that we criticize the Israeli government, but with hope, a hope that a better future can be made for both Israelis and Palestinians, a future in which both the violence of the occupier and the resulting violent resistance of the occupied come to an end, and where one people need not rule over another, engendering suffering, humiliation, and retaliation. True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin or any other identity attribute.'

Another Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Mairead Maguire, has said: 'I hope we can agree that breaking the Silence on Palestine, and insisting that people have a right to know what governments are doing in their name, is a way in which we all, especially journalists, media, can help… We can especially pledge to support the ongoing Palestinian and Israeli HR and peace movements for justice believing that genuine diplomacy, dialogue and listening brings us to a new understanding of each other, being the only way to peace.'

Would anyone accuse these two Nobel Peace Prize laureates of being 'Israel haters'?

Historical Precedent
This is not the first time that a prominent supporter of Palestinian rights has been silenced in Austria. There have been multiple cases, such as in 2001, when the cultural critic and public intellectual Edward Said was disinvited to speak at the Freud Society. The Society's president explained that the cancellation arose from the desire to avoid 'an internal clash.'

Mr. Said later noted: 'Freud was hounded out of Vienna because he was a Jew. Now I am hounded out because I'm a Palestinian.'

In his 2003 book, Culture and Resistance, Mr. Said wrote: 'For anyone to deny the horrendous experience of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust is unacceptable. We don't want anybody's history of suffering to go unrecorded and unacknowledged. On the other hand, there's a great difference between acknowledging Jewish oppression and using that as a cover for the oppression of another people.'

After the Freud Society revoked Mr. Said’s invitation, a group of distinguished psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic critics wrote a letter of protest. The London Freud Museum invited Mr. Said to deliver the lecture he was to have given in Vienna. The Austrian Society for Literature and the Vienna-based Institute for the Human Sciences also subsequently invited Mr. Said to speak.

The issue was not whether people agreed with Mr. Said's opinion, but that they defended his right to express it.

Journalistic Responsibility
That Austria has a difficult history regarding WWII is clear. Sensitivity to issues connected to the Holocaust and the persecution of Jewish and other populations is well-founded. The acknowledgement and prevention of anti-Semitism everywhere is absolutely imperative.

But does that equate to censuring a Holocaust witness who lost her family to concentration camps and was going to speak about her experience working on the Nuremberg Trials?

The democratic process depends on informed citizens taking an interest in the actions of governments. The media has an obligation to promote freedom of speech in that regard.

Journalists everywhere face pressure from powerful interest groups seeking to silence certain perspectives on different topics. Yet the journalistic tenets of objectivity and impartiality necessitate reporting fairly on those whose opinions may be controversial.

We, members of the global community, are deeply concerned about the Austrian media's recent treatment of Hedy Epstein and the clear pattern of silencing voices which are critical of the policies and practices of the government of Israel. Questioning the policies of a government does not equate to hating a country. Freedom of speech is a basic democratic value incumbent upon society to uphold and for media everywhere to pursue.

The list of supporters below is not exhaustive, but rather indicative of the strong support this open letter receives worldwide:Avram Noam Chomsky, Ph.D.: Linguist, philosopher, historian, logician, social critic, and political activist. Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of the founders of the field of cognitive science. The author of over 100 books, USA

Brian Eno: Musician, composer, record producer, singer, and visual artist, England
Professor Richard A. Falk: United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, USA